DaveO

So Amano shrimp love to escape. They are very good at it, In fact. I had one fly out of my tank when I was cleaning it one day. I didn't see him jump, but he wanted out of there, I guess. When I was all done with the tank and putting stuff away is when I saw him marching over to the TV stand. He almost made it under there but I caught a glimpse of movement on the floor, thank goodness. Another time I had another Amano disappear for over a year and then reappear. I'm sure he was hiding in the filter this whole time. I found a neo shrimp on top of the lid once. That ended badly. All that said, I doubt anything like this happened to your shrimp. It sounds like yours is a new addition to the tank. They will hide out until they're comfortable with their new surroundings. I would do something to block that opening in the lid, though. I used clear packing tape to tape that opening shut one time. It worked pretty well. Good luck.

I'm not worried about buying plants from the coop. I got a few anubius yesterday when I saw them for sale. I hope some of the other varieties are available soon, like Nana, coffeefolia, golden etc. I did get lots of the rot over the last year or so and my tanks are looking kind of sparse.

Oh man, that's a bummer. At least you found it early.

I don't know what it is but that trim looks old fashioned. I would definitely leak test that tank before doing anything else with it.

I would trim all the long leaves, stem and all, as low as possible. The shorter leaves will continue to grow and more new growth will emerge. I have done this many times with unruly crypts. I have trimmed 50% or more of the leaves on occasion with no problem.

This Brianne sounds awesome. I wish you had some photos of her Clash Stand you could share.

Yes they are. And congrats on your shrimp too.

I don't have any good recent photos to share, but I did get a good measure on him just a few days ago. He is 8" long and nice and plump. As Dan would say "fat and sassy". Jonny said that this is about what they expected for growth. I do believe the eel is done with his growth spurt now as I have not noticed any growth for a while. I keep him in a 40 breeder with a dozen orange Bolivian tetras, four zebra otos, five orange Venezuelan corys, four large amano shrimp and lots of neo shrimp and snails. I think that's all. He is 100% peaceful with all the fishes, but is definitely a death threat to all neo shrimp and snails. He is good with plants, but will occasionally break a stem here and there because he swims in and around them alot. As far as hiding goes, I would say he is in the back where you don't see him alot of the time. He is also right out front where you do see him alot. He definitely is not afraid of people. He will eat out of your hand if you want. This can be good or bad. When your arm is in there he might try to grab it. I think he thinks my arm is a big juicy worm or something. It doesn't hurt at all but is startling at first. Once I was trimming plants and as I started to close the scissors he shoved his nose right in there. Thankfully I didn't snip the scizzor closed. If you have the tank for one or many of these eels, I would highly recommend them. They are super fun.

The photo helps alot. I think you need lots more plants. Maybe fill in the back panel with swords and val or dwarf sag. Try to get it to where you can't see the wall through your tank. Of course it takes time to grow the plants, so in the meantime you need to do more water changes.

Yes, that. 👆 Also, I would add one more hour light duration.

For a smaller colorful fish I chose these guys. They are called Orange Bolivian Lemon Tetra. You have to look around a while to find them, but well worth it.

I looked at the dimensions of this tank which is about 35 1/2" wide. I would use the 30" light for it, and yes, it's fine to use on top of a glass lid. I think the 36" light would overhang the tank a bit, making it a poor choice.

From the sounds of your tank, I'm sure you will have great success.

I'm not opposed to soilent green, I just prefere community blend. Both have similar ingredients, but community leans a bit more heavily toward meaty protein. You should use the soilent since that's what you have. Like I elluded to earlier, my tanks have plenty of algea and biofilm so im not worried that the otos need more. I just like to give all my fish a mix of different foods. If one doesn't like a certain food, another usually does. It doesn't hurt to try many things, that's all I'm saying.

My otos love canned green beans. Just split it open so they can easily get to the soft insides. Remove any leftovers by the next day. They also love the Xtreme brand Bottom Wafers. I have some larger otos that swarm Hikari VibraBites and Fluval Bug Bites. They want and need more than just algea. In the wild they scrape up lots of bugs and biofilm too. So I like to use the Repashy Community Blend for them and not the soilent green. They do get lots of biogoo in my tanks because I have plenty of wood in there, and I change water only every other week at 25% to 30%. Good luck with your otos, they're neat little fish.

No retailer is going to sell illegal fish, so you actually don't need to worry about it. There are no laws prohibiting interstate transport of privately owned aquariums and fish. I think you are worrying about a problem that doesn't exist.

That's pretty cool you got shrimplets.

Yes, but I was thinking of just a fish. Now some people are a different matter.

Just guessing here. If it can eat it, it can poop it.

Yes, the snails. I don't know why I never considered their negative impact on the eggs. It simply never entered my mind. I guess I always thought of them as good little plant cleaners. As far as pH goes, all my tanks are a steady 6.8.

I do believe you have planeria worms. They are not especially harmful for fish but may be very harmful to shrimp and snails. There is a product called NoPlaneria you can buy at the fish store to get rid of them.

This is what anubius rot looks like. I first noticed it when a leaf dislodged and was floating. That was a long time ago. Later I trimmed off the affected part and re-"planted" it. For a long time it continued to grow but recently I discovered more floating leaves. Finally I pulled it for good. Bummer.

Yes, that lights up really well. I've enjoyed following along this very interesting build.

Oh, that's pretty.

The move to the bigger tank has gone well. All the bigs and all the smalls getting along famously. Here's a clearer shot of some of them hanging out. There's even a couple of the cousins, the dwarf amber barbs, in the group.